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Lily Hospitals: The Journey to COHSASA Accreditation.

Lily Hospitals is one of the largest integrated healthcare groups in Nigeria.

It was started in 1984 by Dr. and Dr Mrs Richmond Leigh and later leased to three medical doctors (Austin Okogun, Mayomi Onuwaje, and Louis Alekwe) in 1998 who later bought over the shares in 2001.

Lily Hospital in Warri is a private specialist facility and a regional centre for services such as fertility treatment, paediatric care, cardiac services, obstetrics, occupational medicine and pain rehabilitation. It was the first healthcare facility to receive ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) certification in Nigeria and the first to embrace the Clinical Governance Programme promoted by Human Resource Institute – British Medical Journal, West Africa (HRI-BMJWA). It was based on their strategic move cum initiatives that The Abraaj Group invested in the company to assist with its strategic plans for expansion.

At Lily Hospitals, a commitment to quality and exceptional healthcare drove the leadership team to pursue accreditation from COHSASA. Despite facing significant challenges, including limited resources and inadequate infrastructure, the hospital’s staff worked tirelessly to meet the rigorous COHSASA standards.

Lily Hospitals started the COHSASA accreditation programme in 2015 and since then has been accredited three times. The Hospital management and staff are to be commended for the good platform that they have created to implement the accreditation standards. Good progress has already been made with the realignment of operational functions and the further formalisation of systems and processes.

The hospital’s quality improvement team, led by Drs Adenike Adewakun, Chidi Ihemedu, Kpiasi Omatsola and Olanrewaju Babalola, played a crucial role in driving the accreditation process. We developed and implemented policies, procedures, and quality improvement initiatives, ensuring that patient care and safety were paramount. Through creative problem-solving and collaboration, the team overcame obstacles, including:

  • Limited financial resources
  • Inadequate infrastructure
  • Staff shortages
  • IHigh patient loads

As Lily hospitals progressed through the accreditation process, the staff began to see the benefits of their hard work. Patient care improved, and staff morale increased. The hospital’s leadership team was proud of the progress we had made and were confident that we would achieve accreditation.

The survey ends but the work begins: Staff of Lily Hospital, Warri at the end of the COHSASA survey.

The day of the COHSASA accreditation survey arrived, and the staff were prepared. The surveyors spent several days assessing the hospital’s compliance with the COHSASA standards. After a thorough evaluation, the surveyors recommended the hospital for accreditation. This marked the first accreditation phase and history was made.

The second phase of accreditation was during the COVID-19 pandemic era with global restrictions that had major impacts. This required restructuring of service delivery, the reassignment of responsibilities to skeleton personnel, upskilling of personnel competencies, etc.

Despite the impact of the pandemic and a high personnel turnover rate, the hospital management and personnel were commended for their continued commitment towards quality service delivery, and for maintaining such an elevated level of compliance with the accreditation standards

After achieving the second phase accreditation, the hospital’s leadership team recognised that sustaining it would be just as challenging as achieving it.

We established a quality improvement unit alongside COHSASA CHAMPIONS to monitor and evaluate the hospital’s compliance with the COHSASA standards. The unit worked closely with department/Service Element Leads to identify areas for improvement and develop strategies for sustaining accreditation.

To sustain accreditation, we implemented several strategies, including:

  • Ongoing staff training and development
  • Continuous quality improvement initiatives
  • Regular audits and evaluations
  • Collaboration with other healthcare organizations
In 2015, when Lily Hospital (Warri) came into the COHSASA programme, their overall score for all their departments was 55. At their final survey in 2025, the score for the hospital was 93.

Lily hospital’s achievement of COHSASA re-accreditation (the third phase) on the 27 June 2025 with a score of 93 had a significant impact on patient care and safety. Patients received high-quality care, and staff were empowered to deliver care that met the highest standards. The hospital’s accreditation and re-accreditation also enhanced its reputation in the community, attracting top talent to its staff.

Today, Lily Hospitals is a model of excellence in healthcare delivery, with a culture of quality that permeates every aspect of patient care, and the staff are committed to delivering high-quality care, while the leadership continues to strive for excellence.

In conclusion, achieving and sustaining COHSASA accreditation is a testament to Lily Hospital’s commitment to quality healthcare. Despite difficult constraints, the hospital’s staff worked tirelessly to meet the COHSASA standards, and their efforts paid off. The hospital’s journey serves as a model for other healthcare organisations seeking to improve patient care and safety. This is also evidenced with the current receipt of the official presentation of COHSASA accreditation Certificates for the third time in a row by our amiable Chief Executive Officer, Dr Austin Okogun on Wednesday, 3 September 2025, in South Africa.

This is not just a certificate. It is a validation of the daily commitment of our doctors, nurses, and support teams who put patients first in every decision.

For our patients, it means safer care, higher standards, and trust you can count on. For our people, it means the courage to keep raising the bar in a challenging healthcare environment while keeping Nigeria on the map.
Three consecutive accreditations tell one story: quality at Lily is not an event, it is our culture.

We celebrate our team, our patients, and our community for walking this journey with us. The best is yet to come.

A big surprise: Just before lunch break, after a panel discussion at the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference at WHX held in Cape Town recently, COHSASA CEO, Jacqui Stewart, produced a big surprise for Dr Austin Okogun, CEO of Lily Hospitals –a third full accreditation certificate from COHSASA.
Moving to excellence: Dr Olanrewaju Babalola, Global Lead for Governance, Risk and Compliance at Lily Hospitals and one of the principal drivers of the accreditation programme with COHSASA’s Chief Surveyor, Dr Giel van Schalkwyk.
A handful of certificates: Jacqui Stewart, CEO of COHSASA, with Dr Austin Okogun, CEO of Lily Hospitals. She was handing out compliance certificates for individual departments in the hospital.
A moment to remember: COHSASA CEO Jacqui Stewart surprised Dr Austin Okogun, CEO of Lily Hospitals, with a three-year accreditation certificate during a break at the Quality Management and Patient Safety Conference at WHX, Cape Town. Pictured (from left): Dr Sabelile Tenza, Jacqui Stewart, Dr Austin Okogun, Nico Benting, Theodore Abrahams, and Lauren de Kock.
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